+Keys+ says that he has _failed to make the clustered bees rejoin the family, if he has put the empty him or box over the colony;_ but that by _placing the box under it, the bees soon re-entered and worked vigorously_. I have myself, in several instances, noticed the reluctance of bees to ascend; this reluctance will however generally give way in a day or two, if no room be allowed them in any other direction. This is proved by the successful use of small glasses upon flat-topped hives or boxes, for obtaining fresh honey occasionally. +Thorley+ _constantly practised super-hiving_, and was very successful with it. So likewise is my friend +Mr. Walond+, who finds it afford him a supply of purer honey than nadir-hiving; for as the queen is generally found more disposed to descend than to ascend, by placing the box over the stock it will seldom be stored with any other combs than those which contain honey. +Mr. George Hubbard+, however, of Bury St. Edmunds, in a paper contained in the Transactions of the Society of Arts, vol. ix. (for which they awarded him ten guineas), says that he has known instances in which the _bees have swarmed rather than submit to super-hiving_. _Bees have been known to construct combs under the floors of the hives, when restricted for room within._ Here their natural activity surmounted the impediments thrown in their way, by the want of inclosed space. The storifying or colonizing plan has been much applauded for its saving the lives of the bees: though this preservation be well worthy of attention, yet it is an advantage very inferior to that which is derived from the œconomical division of labour, the consequent increase of wax and honey, and the facility afforded for extracting them. I trust that this remark will not expose me to the imputation of inhumanity, for I am fully sensible of the value of life to all creatures that exist, and have often felt strongly the force of Thomson's pathetic description of the sulphurous death of bees. "Ah! see where robb'd and murder'd in that pit Lies the still heaving hive! at evening snatch'd. Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night, And fix'd o'er sulphur... "Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends. And, us'd to milder scents, the tender race By thousands tumble from their honey'd dome, Convuls'd and agonizing in the dust." The bee is generally allowed to be a short-lived insect. (_Vide_ Longevity of Bees.) Whatever advantage can be derived however, from preserving the lives of the bees, at the period of taking their honey, those, who keep them upon the storifying plan, will have the full benefit of it, and be spared that torture of feeling, which the sensitive always experience, when destroying life in any way.